Reducing Cabin Lethality in Commercial Spacecraft

The research team proposes to continue a study to evaluate the methods, procedures, and technologies available for the protection of crew-occupied space in commercial spaceflight vehicles to identify recommendations for safety in both nominal and contingency manned aerospace vehicle operations. This includes a review of methods for the de-lethalization of the cabin environment, space vehicle crashworthiness, individual restraint systems, emergency evacuation systems, survival equipment, and related objectives. The review will include an analysis of historical vehicle capabilities and standards as well as a discussion of likely cabin configurations of the various commercial vehicles currently in development. Further, development of a systematic protocol designed to establish best practices towards the evaluation of a space vehicle airframe for any lapses in safety design for primary mishap prevention, as well as appropriate aeromedical response plans to be utilized in the case of an aerospace mishap, will be undertaken. The ultimate objective would be to provide a detailed summary of minimal standards that a crew cabin should meet to be considered safe for occupants in nominal and contingency spaceflight operations and the establishment of a detailed plan for mishap aeromedical response.

• Record URL:
  http://www.coe-cst.org/index.html

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $70196
• Sponsor Organizations:

  Federal Aviation Administration Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation

  William J. Hughes Technical Center
  Atlantic City International Airport, NJ  United States  08405
• Managing Organizations:

  Federal Aviation Administration Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation

  William J. Hughes Technical Center
  Atlantic City International Airport, NJ  United States  08405
• Project Managers:

  Davidian, Ken

• Performing Organizations:

  University of Texas Medical Branch

  Galveston, TX  United States  77555
• Principal Investigators:

  Castleberry, Tarah

• Start Date: 20140909
• Expected Completion Date: 20180817
• Actual Completion Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aircraft cabins; Commercial space transportation; Crashworthiness; Restraint systems; Spacecraft; Vehicle safety
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01678240
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Federal Aviation Administration Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation
• Files: RIP, USDOT
• Created Date: Aug 22 2018 1:03PM